French Foreign Minister LeDrian announced the end of Operation Serval in Mali and the commencement of a new counterterrorism operation called Operation Barkhan, which will see 1,000 French soldiers left in Mali and 3,000 more deployed to Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad. The operation, which will be based in Chad and employ drones, helicopters, fighter jets, transport planes, and armored vehicles, aims to prevent the Sahel region from becoming “a highway … where jihadist groups between Libya and the Atlantic Ocean can rebuild themselves.”
